Okay – when I heard this line from Joe in a speech a few days ago, I had to laugh. A lot. And over the past 40+ years I’ve always asked myself the same thing, “why aren’t we all MAGA people?” But the line came from Trump, right? No … Reagan used it in his 1980 presidential campaign “Let’s Make America Great Again”, and Bill Clinton used it in his 1992 presidential campaign, and used it again for HILLARY in her 2008 run against Obama. It was even used as a slogan/phrase by Barry Goldwater in 1964.
In the Trump era, journalists and commentators linked it to racism – with absolutely no evidence to back that up. It was a dog whistle to light up their democrat base. They took it and used it to edit Trump’s comments on the Charlotte protests. They literally edited his comments to completely change the context of his speech to appear to support racism and white supremacists. Then they played it all over the airwaves, and many of us drank it up like a rum runner on a hot day at the beach.
Then there’s the Jussie Smollett self-created MAGA-hat-wearing assailants in his fabricated hate crime hoax that he’s now been convicted of in Chicago. Of course, there was also the Lincoln Memorial incident where a high school student wearing a MAGA hat was harassed and intimidated by a protestor – and the news media laid all the blame on the student and labeled him accordingly; until the entire video was released, showing the kid holding his ground as he was harassed, doing NOTHING before or after to cause the incident; several of those outlets paid him a rather larger libel settlement. All those commentators went silent; and paid their settlements out.
And don’t forget the BLM and Defund the Police riots in 2020 – where the Democrat leaders were largely (actually, no, entirely) silent. And our own now-VP, Kamala, was on tape at the bedside of an injured rioter, praising him and setting up funding for bail for these folks that killed dozens, injured hundreds (including police), and destroyed thousands of businesses across the country. All while the BLM organization took in millions, which are now under quiet investigations for buying multiple homes, including a $6 million mansion and having lavish parties (all out there on YouTube until it was exposed), and having NOTHING to show for advancing BLM causes except riots that raised more money.
But then again, Trump was labeled racist for wanting to enforce legal immigration, and until our borders could completely verify who was coming in, he moved to restrict Mexican and Muslim illegal entrants. The drugs and human trafficking flowing across the border, and the terrorist “sleeper cells” that were popping up all over Europe, with intel saying it was also happening here (e.g., the 9/11 attacks), were drivers. No matter – he was apparently a racist, and therefore anyone supporting MAGA was also guilty of racism by association. Did you know that we process over 1 million legal visas for entrance into the country per year? And that number is growing annually, except during the pandemic.
But here’s the rub: MAGA supporters are from every ethnic background. Yes, the movement was largely dominated by white, mostly retired, non-college graduated Christian men initially (by the way – this was largely a democrat demographic for a long time until they were abandoned by their party, and Trump’s message grabbed them, and his presidential results solidified them). But now, believe it or not, the largest and fastest growing MAGA supporters are Hispanic and Black Americans! So, no – they aren’t a bunch of entitled racist white folks … the MAGA supporter today is quickly growing into a cross-section of the entire nation with one common goal: Making America Great Again.
So again, I ask, why aren’t we all in favor of that?
A stable, strong, “great” America, BTW, has time and time again led to:
- A more peaceful and stable world, by keeping adversaries in check
- A more prosperous America, that allows us to better help our allies financially and otherwise
- A safer America, noting the 40+% increase in violent crime across every major city in the US (Guess who their mayors and DA’s are? Guess who their AG’s are? Colorado: Look no further than Denver mayor and DA actions or lack of actions, the first-term Dem AG who has done nothing to pursue this but sure likes to go after Medicaid fraud).
- A pro-manufacturing stance that lowers taxes and increases GDP… which all happened in the last term and led to the greatest recorded economic and jobs numbers in history.
- A pro-military stance that modernizes and maintains a strong defense while also encourages allies to, yes, pay their treaty-agreed fair proportional share.
- A pro-energy stance that decreases carbon emissions while also making the US energy-independent during the transition to cleaner energy; You probably didn’t recall that the US carbon emission have maintained a downward trend since 2007, and China is approaching 2.5x the US amount and increasing.
I’ll ask another rhetorical yet reflective question: Where are we in that list above today? Look closely at every bullet and research your answer. You’ll be shocked.
Yes. I support making America great … again. Because when we are, the world actually does benefit. If that message reminds you of Trump, and/or you affiliate it with bad things like racism, I’d suggest you get over it; your perception is frankly wrong… and we see the antithesis of that message playing out today. How’s that working out for everyone?
